A Florida company, Enduris Extrusions Inc., is suing Inteplast Group Ltd., accusing the giant plastic film and bag maker of misappropriating its trade secrets for capped, cellular PVC deck board to get into the decking market last year.
Enduris filed its lawsuit Jan. 19 in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla.
Inteplast, based in Livingston, N.J., announced in September it had signed a licensing agreement with Cevn (pronounced “seven”) Corp. of Somerset, N.J. Cevn President Mark Ippolito holds the patent to the technology, marketed by Inteplast as dual-color, dual-sided cellular PVC deck board.
But Enduris claims in the lawsuit that it developed the cellular PVC decking and a process for manufacturing the product. Enduris of Jacksonville, Fla., introduced Endeck in early 2009, said John Polidan, president and CEO.
The lawsuit contends that in mid-2008, Enduris was approached by a company called Sundance Building Products, and the two firms discussed a possible business relationship that involved exchanging confidential information.
While the talks were going on, Sundance changed its name to Cevn Corp.
Ultimately the companies were unable to form the relationship. But during the discussions, Cevn “obtained trade-secrets information about the proprietary Enduris processes,” according to the lawsuit.
Later, Cevn joined forces with Inteplast.
Cevn is not named as a defendant in Enduris' lawsuit. Ippolito did not return a call seeking comment.
Contacted Jan. 26, Jackson Chen of Inteplast called the suit “a total surprise” and said his company's legal department will look into the matter.
“We have never done business with [Enduris]. We've never talked to them. We've never done anything with them. I have no idea what they're talking about,” said Chen, Inteplast's general manager for building products.
Enduris wants the court to stop Inteplast from using or disclosing its trade secrets, plus grant monetary damages.